Under the situation of repeated global epidemics and increased internal and external uncertainties, a new development pattern with the domestic cycle as the main body has accelerated, and expanding domestic demand and promoting consumption have become the "ballast stones" for stable economic growth. Under the influence of the epidemic, users' activity space and daily consumption continue to shift online.
At the same time, new opportunities and challenges will continue to emerge in the consumer industry in 2021. The scale of live e-commerce continues to expand, and the industry ecology has undergone tremendous changes; while the dark horse of the new consumption track has frequently rewritten the category pattern, it has also promoted competition to enter the second half; supply-side structural reform has brought great enrichment to the consumer goods market, but for some consumers, it also means that information is overloaded.
At this point in time, accurately matching products with consumer needs has become a topic that must be required in the market.
Worth buying (300785. SZ) yesterday disclosed its 2021 annual report, as well as its first Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Report 2021 (ESG Report) since its launch. During the reporting period, the company achieved operating income of 1.403 billion yuan, an increase of 54.26% year-on-year, and net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies of 180 million yuan, an increase of 14.50% year-on-year.
Under the background of the overall weakness of the consumer industry and the normalization of epidemic prevention and control, this annual report exceeded investors' expectations. The release of the ESG report also highlights the sense of social responsibility and mission that the head enterprises in the subdivision field are worth buying. In particular, the long-termism revealed in the report coincides with the company's business model.
ESG attributes of technology companies
The ESG report is divided into three parts: environmental, social and corporate governance. According to the "White Paper on the Development of ESG of China Listed Companies" jointly released by the China Association of Listed Companies and China Securities Index Co., Ltd., from 2009 to 2021, the number of A-share listed companies that disclose ESG-related reports has increased from 371 to 1112. Regarding ESG information disclosure, A-share listed companies mainly make voluntary disclosures. However, from the data point of view, the awareness of ESG information disclosure of the head listed company of A shares has been significantly enhanced.
It is worth buying the first ESG report released, which is also the practice of the social responsibility of the head enterprise. The report clarifies the company's ESG development concept, internalizes the concept of environmental friendliness, social responsibility and care for employees to the company's underlying values; at the same time, based on the ESG development concept, establishes perfect landing measures, and truly achieves the development of enterprises not only to create economic value, but also to continue to create environmental and social value.
It is worth paying particular attention to the development philosophy and core values behind the ESG report. Standardized and scientific corporate governance can ensure the efficient operation of the company on the basis of compliance, protect the demands of different stakeholders and enhance the value of the company.
In terms of social responsibility, it is worth buying technology with high-quality content as the core, closely linking content creators, users, merchants, etc., through content and data empowerment, creating a content community ecology for creators, providing users with good things and good price recommendations, enhancing brand image and sales for merchants, and promoting Chinese customs and national cultural self-confidence by discovering treasures and domestic products, and helping rural revitalization.
It is particularly worth mentioning that since its inception, It is worth buying has been committed to improving the quality and efficiency of users' consumption decisions through consumer content, which is simply to help users save money and spend money when shopping. In this process, it has effectively promoted the process of consumption upgrading.
As a consumer technology enterprise, due to the low-carbon and environmental protection attributes of the business model, it is worth buying to lead rational consumption and reduce extravagance and waste. According to the ESG report, the company attaches great importance to the concept of green and low-carbon environmental protection, and guides users and employees to accept and practice a low-carbon and environmentally friendly lifestyle, effectively promoting the realization of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals.
New business performance was strong
In addition to the release of the first ESG report, another big change worth buying in 2021 is the full implementation of the strategic upgrade.
According to the annual report, under the new strategic guidance, while continuing to strengthen the core competitiveness of the consumer content community "what is worth buying", it has focused on promoting the incubation of four new businesses: consumer MCN, full-link services matched with goods and media, agency operation services, brand marketing services, and consumer data products and services. On the one hand, it expands the influence of consumer content worth buying technology on the whole network, provides more consumers with efficient, accurate and professional consumer decision support, and on the other hand, it also meets the marketing demands of brands and other organizations in a more diversified way. Provide users and customers with more diversified products and services, so as to continuously improve the connection efficiency between e-commerce/brand owners (B-end) and users (C-end).
In the new business, the accounts incubated and operated by consumer MCN relying on the off-site traffic system such as Douyin, Kuaishou, B Station, xiaohongshu and so on have formed a certain scale IP matrix, and have obtained the official certification MCN qualification of multiple platforms.
The full-link business of matching goods and media is mainly responsible for Qingdao Xingluo Chuangxiang Network Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Xingluo), a subsidiary of the Company. The upstream of the business is the stores and brands from Tmall, JD.com, Douyin Xiaodian, Kuaishou Xiaodian, Suning, Pinduoduo and other e-commerce platforms; the downstream is the traffic owners who help upstream merchants to promote commodity sales, including Internet media, communities, KOLs and KOCs on various traffic platforms. Singro provides matching and full-chain services for upstream and downstream partners, and manages the entire link business process through the self-developed technology middle office. At the same time, through the system of the upstream and downstream platforms, as well as the way to provide tools and products for small and medium-sized partners, Xingluo ensures the efficient operation of the entire system, and continuously improves the infrastructure capabilities and user experience. During the reporting period, the improvement of StarRo's service capabilities promoted the rapid growth of the number of merchants and talents. In December 2021, Starro served more than 28,000 merchants per year, more than 4,000 co-owners, and more than 38 million orders. Xingluo has been selected as one of the top ten influential service providers of the Douyin Selection Alliance.
In terms of agency operation service business, it mainly promotes its business through two subsidiaries, Xingluo and Beijing Yousu Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Yousu"). Among them, Xingluo has become an influential Douyin operation service provider (DP), and the company's brand marketing services have also been further expanded, reaching in-depth cooperative relations with dozens of MCNs and hundreds of KOLs to serve a large number of well-known brand customers. It has helped to further strengthen the ability of agency operation services, and create a more professional Douyin e-commerce agency operation team, including well-known FMCG brands such as Tsingtao Beer, Yili, Guizhou Xijiu, Tianfu Tea, etc., for them to carry out full-link full-case operation services such as account operation, short video operation, live broadcast operation, talent cooperation, traffic delivery, marketing event creation, etc. In the future, It will continue to improve its service capabilities for e-commerce and brand owners.
This is reflected in the performance of the significant increase in revenue from new businesses. In 2021, the new business achieved revenue of 358 million yuan, an increase of 357.20% year-on-year, accounting for a significant increase from 8.61% in 2020 to 25.52%. The sharp increase in the proportion is enough to show that the diversified strategic transformation of "consumer content as the core" of worth buying technology has achieved initial results.
The traditional business has a solid foundation
As a core business, the consumer content community 'what is worth buying' revenue is also growing steadily. In 2021, the revenue will reach 1.045 billion yuan, an increase of 25.72% year-on-year, accounting for 74.48% of the overall operating income. In 2021, the number of "what is worth buying" content published increased by 64.93% year-on-year, of which user-contributed content (UGC) accounted for 72.01%. In terms of users, the number of registered users of the App was 22.477 million, an increase of 38.14% year-on-year, and the average number of monthly active users was 37.3891 million, an increase of 11.16% year-on-year.
In 2021, what is worth buying has promoted the construction of community ecology, and the content form has been upgraded from the past long pictures and texts to a combination of long pictures, short videos, live broadcasts and light and short pictures. In addition, the community has also launched new IPs such as "Live Detective" for live e-commerce scenarios, and created 9 "good value methods" and 22 "experience value methods" to meet the diversified and personalized consumption needs of users.
With the continuous improvement of the consumer content ecology, in 2021, the average number of monthly active users of "what is worth buying" has increased to 37.38 million, an increase of 11.16% year-on-year. At the same time, the annual confirmed GMV was 21.836 billion, an increase of 7.76% year-on-year, the annual order volume was 160.9935 million, an increase of 18.88% year-on-year, and the commercialization ability was continuously enhanced; the total number of "what is worth buying" content interactions was 2431.3223 million times, an increase of 9.19% year-on-year. From the perspective of commodity categories, computer digital, food fresh, household appliances as the head category, maternal and infant products, personal care makeup, tourism, culture and entertainment and other categories continue to improve rapidly with the company's diversified category strategy.
The long-term doctrine behind high R&D
As a consumer technology company, the R&D investment worth buying is also very amazing. The annual report discloses that in 2021, the investment in research and development worth buying is as high as 1.619 billion yuan, accounting for 11.55% of the revenue, much higher than that of its peers.
In the more than 10 years since its establishment, the reason for the continuous growth of worth buying technology stems from the insight into the consumer market, the great investment in research and development, and the mission pursuit and long-termism of "making every consumption produce happiness".
After nearly a year of promoting strategic upgrading, in 2022, the strategic upgrading of worth buying science and technology will enter the stage of intensive cultivation and strengthen the strategic orientation of efficiency priority, so as to ensure the effective landing of medium- and long-term core strategies. The first quarter report of 2022 disclosed that its first quarter revenue was 251 million yuan, an increase of 6.55% year-on-year; the net profit loss attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 21.78 million yuan, down 184.19% year-on-year. Due to the rise in employee compensation and marketing business costs, temporary performance losses have been incurred, but it is not easy to maintain the strong momentum of revenue in such an environment.
In the face of 2022, it is worth buying technology will strengthen the strategic orientation of "efficiency first": to achieve high-quality growth in revenue, and to maximize the efficiency of the use of various resources, to ensure the effective landing of the company's strategy, to adhere to the business philosophy of "doing things that are difficult to do in the short term but have unique value in the long term", and to implement "value-driven" and "long-term doctrine" into every product, every service, and every step of growth, bringing more value to the consumer industry.